27 March 2017

As you know, Ruud Borgers has been a big part of our Rock School, be it band coaching, playing live with our teachers and students, or overall advising and sharing his talent and knowledge with all of us throughout the years. Now you have the chance to get to know him even better in the interview below, where he explains how it is to work as a band coach.

That it is always
exciting to see what happens when people start making music together. The interaction, the way they play and sound together,
the musical arrangements are what make music interesting to me. What makes the difference
between a good band and a not so good band. Actually my field consists of all the things you can’t write down.
Everything that goes beyond the facts.

4. What would you like to change about
your work?

Nothing really, only… the more talented
students are, the more interesting the work, so sometimes I wish some students
were more musical.

5. What kind of mentality do you need
for your line of work?

Maybe mentality isn’t the right word. I
think a better question would be which skills you need to do this. Socially you
need to good with people and either be empathic or develop your empathic
ability to be able to consider things from someone else’s perspective and
understand their musical style. Coaching is a lot easier when people trust you.

Musically you need to be pretty all-round
because you need to be able to trigger a whole band to produce a better result.
For instance, you should be able to give both a singer and a drummer or
guitarist feedback at their own level.

Didactically, you need to be familiar
with competency-based education and to keep everyone in the room busy.

6. Why did you choose this work?

I never thought I
would be a teacher but when someone asked me it seemed like a good idea. It seemed like a logical thing to do on weekdays
since there aren’t too many opportunities for musicians to play on those days.

7. If someone wants to become an entrepreneur,
what advice would you have?

Not too much about entrepreneurship
because that’s clearly not my strong suite. I never really developed my
business side and I don’t want to spend too much of my time on those things, so
I work with others who know that side of the work. But maybe one piece of
advice: know your limitations! If you are not so good at something, like
accounting or promotion, hire someone who is good at that to do that part. We
don’t want mediocrity of course!

17 March 2017

There are many activities planned for our students to
happen in the near future, one of those being another gig in Gracanica. Before
that happens, we will be visited again by Ruud Borgers for a training week that
will last from 20th until 25th of March – 25th being the event date of the
concert.

Having Ruud Borgers work with our bands all these years has been really valuable for the students, as they get to learn more from him each time, so we expect this upcoming training week to be as successful as ever. With these rehearsals, the bands will be ready to perform their old and new tunes at Genghis Pub in Gracanica, on 25th this month.

2 March 2017

On 25th of February, for the first time ever, our south
branch students have engaged in something completely different – a hip-hop
workshop. Led by Mergim Memoviq, the class started off with the introduction of
the genre and the interpretation of its lyrics in general.

The introduction consisted of a discussion about hip-hop as
a revolutionary genre since mid 70s until now. The students were taught about
the first steps of hip-hop, its pillars, and what hip-hop contains as a music
genre. The entire workshop was followed with interaction and many of the main
hip-hop figures were mentioned, as well as their impact in the music industry.
The discussion extended to the evolution of the genre and the inspiration
behind it.

During the lyrics interpretation session, participants were asked to interpret their favorite hip-hop verses and to try
to freestyle on their own. Participants also
discussed rhyming styles and the importance of
combining different writing techniques to create good hip-hop lyrics.

Overall, the workshop was very successful and we’re excited about engaging the students
in music genres not yet celebrated at the Rock School.

VISIT OUR WEBSITE!

Southeast Europe's first rock music school

The Mitrovica Rock School restores rock music culture to the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica, Kosovo. Local musicians teach the city’s future rock stars. Throughout the region, the Mitrovica Rock School is known as an example of a new way to bridge cultural differences.